Sylvia
https://www.goodreads.com/sylviashipp
a story can’t engage readers without the electricity that illuminates the plot, the voice, and the talent, bringing them to life. The question is: what, specifically, generates that juice? The answer is: it flows directly from how the
...more
“Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It's that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”
― The Sheltering Sky
― The Sheltering Sky
“One time I saw a tiny Joshua tree sapling growing not too far from the old tree. I wanted to dig it up and replant it near our house. I told Mom that I would protect it from the wind and water it every day so that it could grow nice and tall and straight. Mom frowned at me. "You'd be destroying what makes it special," she said. "It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.”
― The Glass Castle
― The Glass Castle
“....he said it was interesting. He used the word 'textured'. He said 'smooth' is boring but 'textured' was interesting, and the scar meant that I was stronger than whatever had tried to hurt me.”
― The Glass Castle
― The Glass Castle
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
―
―
“Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it”
― Man's Search for Meaning
― Man's Search for Meaning
Beta Reader Group
— 29892 members
— last activity 3 hours, 5 min ago
A place to connect writers with beta readers. Sometimes writers get so involved in the plot they can't see the wood for the trees. Hang on a sec'--th ...more
Goodreads Reviewers' Group
— 13298 members
— last activity 7 hours, 17 min ago
This group helps to bring Reviewers and Authors together! Reviewers can make their own thread to post their reviews in, or post their reviews in the r ...more
Sylvia’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Sylvia’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Sylvia
Lists liked by Sylvia






















































